This invention relates to an airborne device for refueling rotary wing aircraft. The airborne refueling of helicopters to date has been limited to operations in which the forwardly projecting fueling probe of a helicopter can engage the flexible hose drogue trailing behind a fixed wing tanker aircraft capable of flying at a minimum control speed in the range of the maximum speed of the helicopter. Fixed wing tanker aircraft, in general, other than the C-130 of marginal capability, cannot maintain a minimum control speed within the maximum speed range of most helicopters.
Even when a fixed wing tanker aircraft capable of controlled flight within the speed range of helicopters is available, the helicopter must discontinue its slow speed operational activities for the considerable time period that is required to make refueling engagement with the fixed wing tanker aircraft and take on a full fuel load before returning to its slow speed operational activity. If a fixed wing tanker aircraft of sufficiently low speed characteristics is not available for refueling, the helicopter must then land to refuel or pick up containers and manually refuel in flight before returning to its slow speed operational activity.
This loss of productive mission time on station for helicopters engaged in continuous slow speed missions, such as mine sweeping, requires that additional helicopters equipped for the slow speed mission be assigned than would be necessary were the helicopters capable of being refueled while operating at the slow speed required for conducting its mission. Heretofore, helicopters have not been figured as tanker aircraft due to the problem of maintaining a safe clearance distance between the rotor blades of the respective aircraft during the refueling operation, as well as the problem of keeping a conventional flexible hose drogue trailing behind a tanker aircraft free of the tanker aircraft rotor blade path.